Firecrackers
by plumeria-hi
Summary: In which firecrackers are combusted, accidents are made and accidents are forgiven.


**Firecrackers**

* * *

_Crackle-crackle…_

_ Boom_!

Hong Kong squealed in glee as the bamboo exploded in a shower of sparks that were as brilliant as his amber eyes.

"Hong Kong! Hong Kong!"

At the mention of his name, Hong Kong diverted his gaze from the sparks to beam from ear to ear as his twin bounded towards him, her oversized skirt (which was getting rather filthy… _Sigh_. More washing for China- gege) dragging behind her on the grass.

"Taiwan!" Hong Kong greeted.

"Hong Kong! Hong Kong! Did you see? Did you see what you did?" Taiwan squealed, picking up the combusted piece of bamboo (only to drop it quickly as it seared her fingers).

"Don't, like, touch that!" Hong Kong chuckled, prodding the bamboo away with a stick.

"I know that now", Taiwan pouted, blowing her fingers- before regaining her cheeriness once more, as was her nature to do so, "Sooo… What was _that_?"

"This?" Hong Kong pointed an oversized red sleeve at the piece of bamboo.

Taiwan nodded eagerly; her bubbly brown locks flying everywhere would've obscured her flushing face if it had not been for the blossoms secured behind each ear.

"Oh… Well, this is-"  
"It looks like a flower! A pretty, sparky _flower_!" His sister gushed, further clarifying the 'pretty, sparkly flower' by throwing her frilly sleeves into the air.

"Oh… I've, like, never really considered it from _that_ perspective", Hong Kong shrugged.

"Hm- quite right. Pretty flowers don't burn you, do they?" Taiwan thought aloud, "So… The sparkly-flower-that-isn't-a-flower doesn't have a name?"

"A name… O-of course it, like, totally has a name!" Hong Kong declared, only to frown at the realization that his newly acquired creation _didn't _have a name after all.

Taiwan was still staring at him in anticipation.

"Um… It's a… Err… Firecrackers!"- Was the first thing that popped up in Hong Kong's mind- "Y-yes, they are called firecrackers! Because they are, um, made of fire and, uh, crack!"

"Firecrackers?" Taiwan repeated, playing at her new vocabulary with her tongue, "Hmmm… Firecrackers, firecrackers…"

Hong Kong nodded hurriedly, causing his neck-cropped hair (which, unlike Taiwan's, was obviously _not _held back by flowery pins of any sort) to obscure his desperate-to-please eyes.

However, to his relief, Taiwan uttered a gleeful squeal and began prancing in a circle around her twin, chanting 'Firecrackers! Firecrackers!' all the while she did so. Hong Kong found himself laughing and chanting along, and soon the two were whooping and skipping as Taiwan's crazy locks whipped both their faces.

Out of breath and panting, the children collapsed upon the soft blanket of grass in a giggling heap. After a moment of gazing at each other, Taiwan broke the silence.

"Hong Kong?"

"Yes?"

"Can you show me again Hong Kong?"

"The firecrackers?" Hong Kong inquired, sitting up before helping his sister to do the same.

"Yes- I'd like to see!" Taiwan grinned.

"Oh… Al-alright then", Hong Kong nodded, revealing another piece of bamboo along with a pouch from within his sleeves.

"Ooh! Hong Kong, what is _this _for?" Taiwan wanted to know, examining the contents of the pouch.

"I'm not really sure just yet to be honest", Hong Kong shrugged, retrieving the pouch from Taiwan and pouring some of the content into the bamboo before adding a piece of rope, "But remember that incident a few weeks ago? The time China-gege, like, nearly set the kitchen on fire?"

Taiwan nodded, giggling slightly at the memory of the event. After a long sunny day spent at the banks of the Yangtze, she, Hong Kong, Korea-gege and Japan-gege were all waiting anxiously at the table for dinner to be ready when a plume of smoke wafted through the kitchen door, followed by a dusty-faced China-gege in a frenzy of rushing back and forth from the bathroom with pails of water- only for Japan-gege to put out the fire himself amidst the chaos of screaming (from Korea-gege) and laughing (from the twins- well, what innocent children would not be laughing after seeing their well-respected gege's face painted like a panda?).

"Well, I found this after the incident. It helps set the firecrackers alight", Hong Kong continued, before holding up the finished firecracker triumphantly.

"The firecracker!" Taiwan cheered, taking a step back and raising her sleeves to her ears.

A few seconds later, when the muffled sound of explosives never came and the firecracker remained intact in Hong Kong's red-sleeved grip, Taiwan lowered her hands and gave her brother a quizzical look.

"Hong Kong, is the firecracker broken?" She wanted to know.

"The firecracker's broken?" Hong Kong raised an eyebrow skeptically, examining the craft before bursting into laughter (much to the other's confusion) as the meaning of his sister's question became apparent to him, "no Taiwan, it's not broken! You have to, like, light the fuse first! See?"

"Light the fuse?" Taiwan repeated.

"Mm-hm", Hong Kong nodded, taking out a match, "I'm going to burn the end of the rope, and then when all the rope is gone-"

"The firecracker will explode! The firecracker will explode!" Taiwan squealed, "Quickly Hong Kong! Light it quickly!"  
Hong Kong obliged merrily, striking the match. He could see Taiwan's honey-coloured orbs grow larger, her sugar-sweet grin grow wider so as to deepen the dimples on her cheeks as she watched the 'magic' being worked.

_Crackle_! The flames leapt from the match.

_Fwoosh_! It set the rope alight and began its ascend towards the bamboo.

"Stand back!" Hong Kong called to Taiwan, tossing the firecracker onto the grass before bounding to his sister's side.

The children squirmed with excitement as the fire surged through the rope, closer and closer to the bamboo…

… And stopped.

"… Hong Kong? Where's the pretty, sparkly flower?" Taiwan started, not daring to divert her gaze away just in case she missed the sparks.

"I-I don't understand", Hong Kong muttered, "w-w-why did the flame stop? That totally wasn't supposed to happen!"  
Hong Kong was disappointed that his attempt to please his sister was cut short (but then again, this 'firecracker'- thing was new to him- who could guarantee that mistakes won't be made?), and was just about to give up and make another.

Taiwan, however, didn't appear to share her brother's opinion.

"Well- m-maybe the fire just needs to be stronger! It- it worked before!" Taiwan protested, letting go of her brother's hand and starting towards the firecracker, "I'll go take a look!"

"Taiwan, it's okay! I can totally make another-"

That was when he saw it.

The almost-microscopic part of the rope, the part that had not been charred by the fire, began to flicker red once more. The fire had not died- it was simply resting, and is now continuing its journey towards the bamboo…

_And Taiwan was heading straight towards it_.

"Taiwan! Taiwan, come back!" Hong Kong cried, waving his sleeves in a pathetic attempt to catch his sister's attention.

"Hong Kong, it's okay! I can-"

_Boom_!

* * *

"… Ah! I smell barbeque! China-nii, are we having barbeque for lunch? –"

"-Ahaha! Hey Japan! Did you know Aniki learned how to make barbeque from me? Did you _know_? Barbeque originated form me! –"

"Korea, stop pestering your brother! Did you Japan? Because I didn't make barbeque for lunch…"

"Oh, how strange. I smell smoke."

"Me too- hey, look! Fire! Aniki, there's a fire outside!"

"What are you talking about Korea- _Wo de tian na_! * Taiwan, what did you _do _to yourself!"

* * *

_Creak_.

The door is carefully set ajar by a hand clad in an oversized red sleeve. A pair of guilt-ridden amber pupils peered into his sister's bedroom; peered at the sad little figure wrapped in a blanket, hunched on her bed facing the wall.

It had been an absolute _disaster_.

Showing Taiwan the firecrackers had been an absolute disaster.

The firecracker had exploded in his sister's face- no one had any time to react before the garden (and most importantly Taiwan herself) was engulfed in smoke and soot and _flames_. Out of the house rushed their brothers; Korea-gege dousing the grass with a pail of water, Japan-gege tugging him out of the smoke, and China- gege carrying the sooty pile of skirt and frilly sleeves in his arms.

No one was allowed to enter Taiwan's room until later on in the evening.

Having no appetite to finish his dinner (his guilty conscience was like a clamp on his throat, and China-gege's "It's not your fault Hong Kong" did not help ease it even the slightest bit), Hong Kong excused himself from the table and went to pay his sister a visit.

"Um… Taiwan?" Hong Kong started, taking a nervous step into the room.

The other did not respond; let along show any signs of being aware of the fact that someone had entered her room.

"Taiwan?" Hong Kong gulped, "I'm, like, totally sorry for what happened earlier-"

"-Why should you be!"

Before Hong Kong could utter another word, Taiwan had shaken her blanket away and sprung off the bed, drawing his brother into a warm, plum blossom-scented embrace. Her bubbly brown locks no longer engulfed him when she did so- for they were no longer there. Instead, her hair now hung to her chin, the curly ends tipped with black from the accident. Her body now seemed much frailer, her chest mummified by bandages and her arms bare, the occasional patches of burns here and there.

But despite the pathetic state her body was in, she was still grinning, the honey of her eyes that matched his still laughing and full of zeal.

"… Taiwan?" Hong Kong breathed, not sure whether he should return the embrace or not.

"Don't be sorry Hong Kong! Just don't be!" Taiwan laughed, tightening the embrace.

"B-but- I _burnt_ you!" Hong Kong exclaimed.

"Well, actually that part is true", Taiwan shrugged, rubbing her shoulders before uttering another giggle and bounding around the room, "Oh, but it was so _beautiful_ Hong Kong!" She gushed, colour surging into her cheeks, "It was all so beautiful!"

"The smoke?"

"Yes- _no _silly, not the smoke! The sparks! So many of them, like hundreds and _millions _of pretty little fireflies-"- before thinking hard- "- or pretty little flower petals! Yes, pretty, pretty flower petals! Like the ones that drift off China-gege's plum tree in the spring after Korea-gege bumps his head into it trying to get his new years-clothes on!"

"So… You're not mad at me?" Hong Kong ventured.

"Why would I be?" Taiwan grinned, "I was burned- but it was worth it see? Because I could see the pretty firecrackers! Besides, firecrackers can combust and burns come and burns go…

"But that doesn't change the fact that I have the best twin brother in the whole world!" Taiwan declared, enveloping the other in yet another embrace.

"… Thanks Taiwan- I think you're the best twin sister in the whole world too", Hong Kong beamed, returning the embrace.

"Oh! Hong Kong?"

"Yes Taiwan?"

"… Tomorrow, would you mind showing me the firecrackers again?"

* * *

***Wo de tian na! = 'Oh my god!'**

**Yaaay, I'm on fire this week!- Nay, truth be told school had (so fortunately) given us a week-and-four-days break for Idul Fitri (for those who celebrate it- happy Idul Fitri!), and this story had been lying dormant in my notebook for a while now. So! Due to having nothing to do, I've decided to post another one-shot.**

**Hong Kong and Taiwan... These two are going to be a tough one to pair up. I have no OTP's for either of them, because I'm sorta stuck between desperately wanting to pair them up, but Hong Kong x Iceland sounds good too, and then there's always Hong Kong x N. Korea or Taiwan x N. Korea... O****_r _****Taiwan x Vietnam! (What? Seems legit enough for me). So for now it's sibling love- I'll have to put further thought into this in the foreseeable future.**

**Sincerely**

**-Plumeria hi**


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